The National Task Force Against COVID-19 announced today that, following the recent spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in the Philippines the past couple of days, travel into the Philippines by foreigners and non-OFW Filipinos will once again be temporarily banned. The ban will be in place for a month, beginning March 20th until April 19th 2021.
According to the memorandum issued by the task force, only the following will be exempted from the ban:
- Holders of 9(c) visas
- Medical repatriation and their escort/s duly endorsed by the DFA-OUMWA or OWWA
- Distressed ROFs duly endorsed by DFA-OUMWA
- Emergency, humanitarian, and other analogous cases approved by the NTF-COVID-19
However, the directive also stated the limit of inbound passengers to only 1,500 people per day.
The memo states, “The significant rise in cases since the start of the year is highly likely attributed to increased transmission due to noncompliance to the minimum public health standards, especially during gatherings, increased mobility of people, delays in detection and isolation of infected patients, and the entry of SARS-CoV-2″ variants of concern having potential increased transmissibility.”
On March 15th, the Philippines recorded a spike of 5,404 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, the highest recorded in a single day since August 2020.
View the original post here:
Due to the increasing number of new cases of COVID-19 here in the Philippines, the National Task Force temporarily suspends the travel into the Philippines for foreigners and returning Overseas filipino workers. pic.twitter.com/NxQq6UDhjX
— Department of Health (@DOHgovph) March 16, 2021
What do you think of this ban? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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